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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Philotomy Jurament" data-source="post: 3327311" data-attributes="member: 20854">If the trolls are inherently evil, then dispatching them is the paladin's duty -- as distasteful as it may be.  Going this route makes things simple.If the trolls are only predisposed to evil, but are not inherently/intrinsicly evil, then you have a stickier situation.  You have two questions to answer:1.  Is there a reasonable possibility that the trolls can be raised to be good, posing no danger to society?and2.  Is there a reasonable and just alternative to killing them?Addressing #1:  I find the possibility to be unlikely, at best.  Who would take on this responsibility?  Who would be legally responsible?  Who would provide the money?  How would these creatures fit into society?  Et cetera, et cetera.  In most campaigns, this is an unreasonable and unrealistic expectation.  Given that, killing the trolls before they grow into the dangerous and evil monsters they're sure to become may be the best choice, unless some other alternative presents itself (e.g. #2).Addressing #2:  The most obvious alternatives are imprisonment, forced alignment change (possibly with polymorph, too), magical stasis, or magical banishment to another plane/dimension.  In most campaigns, imprisonment is impractical and unrealistic.  Even human criminals face capital sentences in most campaign worlds.  Prisons for long-term incarceration of many (possible magical) creatures usually do not exist.  If they were to be created, who maintains them and pays for them?  Is this an unjust burden on society?  Et cetera.Forced alignment change/polymorph is an interesting thought.  Practical considerations are the biggest barrier (who does it, who pays for it, how are these new members of society integrated, how are the monsters held prior to their change, et cetera).  Also, it raises the possibility of dispel magic/undoing the change.  Might be safer to kill them, eh?  Magical stasis is similar: where are they stored, who pays for it, wouldn't a BBEG love to get his hands on a bunch of evil monsters in stasis (ready made army).Magical banishment suffers from some of the same problems, but also the question of "is making our garbage someone else's problem a good solution" or even "wouldn't it be better to kill them and lessen the total amount of evil in the multiverse" types of questions.</blockquote>

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